Top of the big era

In the previous life, the Lian family suffered many setbacks in its development process. Especially the online business. Since the launch of Lianjia Online in 2010, the business has grown slowly and its reputation is not big enough. It cannot compare with the rental websites created by Internet entrepreneurial teams.

Fortunately, offline business is Lianjia’s fundamentals.

Boss Zuo was not in a hurry, so he slowly laid the foundation and solidly completed the offline "self-operated" business. The services that this self-operated business can provide are far from those that engage in third-party rental transactions. The platform is comparable.

Over time, reputation has been accumulated.

Especially with the explosion of mobile Internet and the rise in housing prices, the Internet industry in big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen is developing rapidly, but young people cannot afford houses.

The rental market exploded.

The storm is coming.

By 2016, Internet giants such as Baidu and Penguin invested in Lianjia and provided Lianjia with professional Internet operation experience, technology and models.

At this time, Lianjia took off.

It can't be stopped anymore.

The offline accumulation in the past few years has become the highest quality self-operated housing on the rental platform Lianjia. With the support of technology, it can develop towards a larger data volume.

Shell House Search appeared.

The reason why this platform appeared so late is not because Boss Zuo is not anxious, but because he is powerless. Before the teams of Baidu and Penguin entered, he was confused in the Internet world and could not find the direction at all. He did not know what to do. .

After the capital from Baidu and Penguin came in, Lianjia quickly made internal adjustments and soon launched Beike House Search, becoming the leading unicorn.

However, it is only 2012, and no one in the market is optimistic about Lianjia. So Lianjia is short of money and wants to raise funds this time, so it only raises money at the valuation of last year’s Series A round.

Low price inducement.

But even so, no investment institution in the market is willing to give money.

In other words, at this stage, the industry lacks an accurate judgment on the platform economy, and it is not so accurate to decide between "self-operated" and "third-party".

It’s too difficult to be self-employed.

How simple is it to build a platform that serves third parties and operate it with light assets?

This is what Taobao does.

This is so representative.

This has had a very bad negative effect. Most platforms in China are now based on Taobao's model. They have no self-operated assets at all and rely on third-party resources to operate.

This is the trend in the field of rental websites.

Lianjia’s current self-operated asset-heavy model is not favored by the Internet industry.

In 2016, the rental market exploded, the country introduced the policy of "no housing speculation", and all kinds of chaos in the rental market... Only then did everyone pay attention to the potential of Lianjia, and then Baidu and Penguin launched their strategies against Lianjia. invest.

Zhou Buqi was not in a hurry. He first clarified the basic thinking of doing Internet business with Boss Zuo, including the division of shares, powers and responsibilities.

Boss Zuo agrees very much.

I have to agree.

In the Internet field, who else in China can speak with more authority than Boss Zhou?

Zhou Buqi said frankly: "In the past year, I have been wanting to invest in an Internet rental platform with growth potential. After searching a lot, I found that only Lianjia's model is the most reliable."

"real?"

Boss Zuo was surprised and at a loss.

Even he didn't know that the Lian family could be so outstanding.

Ganji.com, 58.com, Anjuke, SouFun.com, Yahoo! Word-of-mouth, Focus.com, Baixing.com, rental groups in friends.com interest circles... In this field in China, Lianjia is not even ranked among the top 20.

Was he favored by Boss Zhou?

Zhou Buqi told him his own platform economic theory, "The reason why Lianjia's model is better is because Lianjia has controllable housing resources. Start with self-operation first, and proceed steadily and steadily, which will lead to better results." This will lead to a more stable development path for the Internet platform.”

A set of big theories came down, and Boss Zuo said to himself: "So that's it!"

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "I will invest in Lianjia this time, and I will also find someone who is proficient in online and offline business to help Lianjia transform. However, Lianjia must firmly follow the self-operated route."

Boss Zuo nodded and said: "Yes, only controllable housing resources can provide the best rental service. Those intermediaries that purely serve third parties will always have various disputes. Over time, it will inevitably affect the brand. "

Zhou Buqi said: "Yes, when you have time, you can go back and study the growth history of JD.com. JD.com has been self-operated for many years. In order to do a good job in self-operation, it even established its own logistics company. Relying on the high quality of self-operation For products and services, JD.com has accumulated reputation and users, and then opened the platform to third-party merchants. This is the most stable and practical path to development."

Boss Zuo smiled and said: "In the past, I only knew that this was the right thing to do, but I really didn't understand the truth behind it. After listening to you, I realized that it was like this. Only you can summarize such a good platform model. theory of development.”

Zhou Buqi waved his hand and said calmly: "Mr. Zuo, I invested in Lianjia because I think Lianjia can become the largest and best rental platform in the country."

Boss Zuo took a deep breath.

There’s a lot of pressure.

Self-operated housing is an asset-heavy operation. Generally, you buy other people's houses or rent them under long-term contracts, store them in your own hands, and then rent them out to tenants.

This means a huge amount of capital is needed.

At present, Lianjia's business is mainly carried out in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. It is not that its development is slow, but it is limited by funds and does not have more money to develop in more cities.

This financing is only 100 million.

Compared with the national real estate market worth tens of trillions, it is not worth mentioning at all.

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "With Lianjia's own financial resources alone, it is impossible to do well in the self-operated stage. In the past few years, JD.com has invested more than 5 billion in order to be self-operated."

"More than 5 billion..." Boss Zuo was shocked. I have seen the business plan of a real big boss. Just mentioning a number can scare people to death. I can't help but ask, "What should I do?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Looking for more strategic partners."

"Ziweixing?"

Boss Zuo actually has his own preferences. He certainly hopes that Boss Zhou will invest in the name of Ziweixing instead of his personal name.

Zhou Buqi shook his head, "In the short term, Lianjia will not be recognized by the capital market. Ziweixing is preparing to go public and try not to interfere with the capital market before going public. However, the partners I am talking about are also Internet companies. ."

Boss Zuo was surprised, "Isn't it an online platform?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "We are building an online platform. In fact, this thing has no technical content. I can just find someone for you and form a team to do a good job in the online business. This is not the most critical, the most important thing is The key is the self-operated system!”

Boss Zuo felt very embarrassed, "The real estate market is too big."

Zhou Buqi said: "So, we need to find more powerful partners for strategic cooperation."

"for example?"

"For example, Vanke, I met Wang Shi in New York last year and talked with him about the prospects of real estate. Sooner or later, domestic housing will become saturated, but real estate is a pillar industry, and housing prices are unlikely to fall. Vanke already has longer-term prospects. With the layout in place, we will encounter bottlenecks in the new real estate market in the future. If we want to have a stable source of income, we still have to rely on the rental market."

"Yes!" Boss Zuo immediately boosted his morale. "I heard that many of Vanke's properties have changed to a new model. They are only for rent but not for sale. They are transforming into the rental market."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "Renting a house is much more complicated than selling a house. Selling a house is a one-time act, just sell it. What you face when renting a house is to rent it back and forth repeatedly. The cost of the offline model is too high, so the online model is the only option." It’s the most reasonable way to rent a house.”

Boss Zuo seemed to understand what Boss Zhou meant, "You mean... if possible in the future, introduce Vanke's batch of rental properties to Lianjia's platform?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Yes, you can invite Vanke to strategically invest in Lianjia and become a family. Moreover, Vanke's brand is so strong, they are also willing to cooperate with Lianjia to provide users with the best rental experience. From this perspective , we can integrate all Vanke’s properties into Lianjia’s self-operated system.”

"That's really it!"

Boss Zuo’s eyes were opened.

He is indeed a world-class boss!

What a great spirit!

Zhou Buqi said: "In this process, the most important thing is to let Vanke invest in Lianjia. The shares should not be too small, and they should get a seat on the board of directors and have a certain say. Only in this way can the two families become one family." , will make Vanke willingly integrate its own properties into Lianjia’s rental platform.”

When it comes to decentralization of power and shares, bosses in traditional industries generally can't stand it. They are afraid that after their shares are diluted, the company will be robbed by others.

Boss Zuo's situation is not that small. He took a deep breath and said, "If Vanke is willing to enter the market, that would of course be the best."

Zhou Buqi said: "It's not just Vanke? Sunac, Greenland, Wanda, Country Garden... In the future, more and more real estate companies will target the rental market. What Lianjia needs to do is to become the number one real estate giant across the country." A big platform. First select a few iconic real estate giants to attract to the board of directors, let them make strategic investments, and summarize the business model and cooperation experience. Only then can we pave the way for the entry of third-party real estate in the future."

Boss Zuo was stunned, "This is not... not..."

Zhou Buqi looked at him funny, "Not what?"

Boss Zuo said: "Isn't this a big platform like Taobao? Taobao sells goods, while Lianjia sells rental properties..."

Zhou Buqi said: "It's not Taobao, it's JD.com. Let's go back and study the models of JD.com, Dangdang, Amazon, and Suning.com. Everything remains the same. There are many business fields, but the general logic is the same. of."